“A brilliant, yet severely
disturbing portrait of the mother of a teenage sociopath”
By Jonathan Chauser
I was “Jonseing” for a really impactful “Indie”
movie experience, so I ventured out to my “not so local” art house
theater. There I found a disturbing and
thought-provoking gem awkwardly titled, “We need to talk about Kevin.”
The
film stars Indie matriarch, Tilda Swinton (Broken Flowers, Michael Clayton) as Eva,
the seemingly innocent birth mother of an evil spawn. Ezra Miller (City Island) plays the
teenage and most brutal version of “Kevin,” although there is no
possible way you can rid your mind of the uncomfortable, menacing stare of Rock
Duel or Jasper Newell. These
three excellent young actors make up the antagonist, “Kevin” from toddler thru
teenage sociopath.
I
had no previous knowledge of this film before I decided this would serve as my
“Fix.” I watched the trailer on my smart phone and I was intrigued. I had no
idea what I was in for. This superbly paced and shot film was written and
directed by a woman unknown to me. Lynne Ramsay, a native of Glasgow
Scotland, banged out one of the most disturbing, fearful, provocative pieces of
cinematic storytelling I may have ever seen, and I watch a lot of movies.
“…Kevin” starts out running a
macabre audio visual gauntlet that you don’t completely understand, but has you
rapt to attention, and as the film progresses you come to enjoy and in my case,
appreciate these audio visual story telling elements, as weird and disturbing
as they are.
Being
a writer, I love dialogue, but there really isn’t that much in this flick. As I
have come to learn from my film studies, the art of cinematic storytelling lies
not just in dialogue, but also in the cinematic language.
This
film makes use of numerous focal changes, long shots of its main characters
face, allowing us to drink in the haunting visage of Swinton’s, Eva and the
grief and at many times debilitating sorrow of her unfolding predicament.
Fairly early on, Ramsay has the wonderfully confident nerve to just settle on
an extreme close up of her teenage killer’s freshly bitten-off fingernails,
placed neatly in an eerie row on the table in a prison visiting room. In this
shot we, the audience, never actually see Ezra Millers face, just the cool
detachment of a sociopathic killer, which permeates the rest of the film, all
without a stitch of dialogue!
The
film also includes another of my favorite character actors, John
C. Reilly (Step Brothers, Gangs of New York, Cyrus) and film nuts like
myself will recognize the gaudy presence of Siobhan Fallon, the rest
of you will walk out of the theater saying “I love that actress, what was she
in again.”
Those
wonderful character actors aside, “We need to talk about Kevin” really
only needs two characters, Tilda Swinton and the marvelous
performances given by the three actors that make up “Kevin.” I am fully aware that 80% of the popcorn audiences that patronize most Cineplex’s
will not “get” this film, but that is why we have Art house venues, the last
vestige for those of us that don’t need our films to always allow us escape to
some over-caffeinated, goofy, action filled wonderland, but actually transport
us into someone’s disturbing, all-to-close to home reality, that is as long as
the filmmakers have the “chops” to make the trip worth the ride.
So,
I say emphatically, “We need to talk about Kevin” is a must see film! One that you
won’t forget whether you want to or not!
Rated R
Running time:
1 hour 42 minutes
